d20 Modern experiences

[Breakdaddy]

We play a very military oriented D20 Modern game. The characters are all ex military elite forces that now work for a black ops branch of the CIA. I think our most memorable firefight occured on a night mission when the team was inserted in the arctic via a boomer which busted up through the ice pack. After establishing a secure perimeter and a makeshift firebase, the PCs proceeded to objective alpha, a hidden Russian laboratory housing a hitherto unknown virus of possibly extraterrestrial origin (found on a meteorite frozen for thousands of years in the vicinity). The team had to neutralize the tangos and some light armor (armed sno-cat) in the vicinity of alpha. After Thor, the team's sniper, placed some ordnance downrange and neutralized two tangos to liberate the sno-cat, the team secured the enemy asset and its payload. Once the team had control over the sno-cat, the mission became significantly more manageable. The team controlled the situation at all times, breaching the established perimeter set up by the enemy and finally neutralizing all enemy hostiles in the vicinity of alpha. The facility was too secure to breach via conventional methods, so the team breached the facility via a ventilation shaft on the roof. Long story short, the team secured the facility with zero casualties sustained and
almost 100 percent inflicted. The computer technicians were spared in exchange for minor assistance in acquiring all local data on the virus. The data was then destroyed after it was determined that no satellite uplink existed from the facilities mainframe to the outside world. After a simple egress to objective charlie (the pickup spot), the team was taken off-site by the same sub that inserted them. It was a fun night with tons of tactics displayed by the PCs; I was pleasantly surprised. I expected them to sustain casualties, but they aggresively neutralized all opposition and maintained mission integrity. Authentication and egress occured with minutes to spare on the mission clock.

 

[Rel]

they aggresively neutralized all opposition and maintained mission integrity. Authentication and egress occured with minutes to spare on the mission clock.

It gets me all hot when you talk like that.

 

[Plane Sailing]

We play a very military oriented D20 Modern game.

I followed you up to about there, and then you lost me completely

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Try here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=216787

I find they look for cover if I give them a good map. In a lot of action flicks, when the fighters maneuver for cover, they can't see each other as they're ducking and the cover is pretty tall. As a result, there's lots of Move Silently checks.

According to a small unit tactics site designed to train people to play paintball (people take this too seriously, I guess), you should "determine your opponent's rhythm" and use Shot on the Run plus Double Tap to shoot your opponent when their head pops up. Even if you miss (as you don't really have time to aim) you'll spoil your opponent's shot.

If you like vehicle combat I suggest buying Cut to the Chase or finding the Spycraft Lite PDF (or just buy Spycraft).

You may want to come up with rules for Suppressive Fire and maybe Wide Burst Fire as well, though.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I think we love Modern because there IS so much stuff to do outside of combat. I'm so used to doing stuff outside of combat I get frustrated with D&D anymore because my dwarven cleric has THREE skill points every level. Oi. I find myself seeing how much interesting stuff I can eek out of rogues and bards. I'm currently playing a dwarven bard with absolutely no "Interaction" skills. All crafts, appraise, etc. The other players call my recent characters "PC-Lite" and "NearPC". If it weren't for the fact that combat is a major part of D&D I'd probably opt to play an Expert.

But running Modern, I love mysteries and investigations. I can whip open an atlas and start plinking in cities online, seeing what information I can turn up. In about ten minutes of searching, I can have maps printed, know where critical businesses are, and start plotting out the locations of things I need to add. One of my players is a geography major who is very interested in population trends, and lately he'll take the map of a city and start plotting out where he thinks critical investigation elements might be. ("Hrm, this would be the industrial area of town, if we avoid that and concentrate our search in this area we should ...")

Battle is ... I'm not sure. High-Level D&D can be COMPLEX, but not the kind of complex that I overly like. I remember one D&D battle where I had a PC Held, Blind, Panicked, and swirling around in an Air Elemental's whirlwind. I think he had another status effect or two on as well. It can just get ridonkulous like that. The sorceror is casting fireball, fireball, fireball; the cleric is buffing friends and debuffing enemies ... and THEN some genius tosses a burst Dispell and we get to roll caster level checks for five minutes.

I agree with all the above posters' comments about battle in Modern. It can be alot of fun. Played Urban Arcana recently: Had an Azer arsonist with a flame thrower setting fire to buildings. He was stirring up clouds of thick acrid smoke from burning boxes of computer parts (Fort saves and miss chances). His buddy was firing from one side. The dwarf of the party started trying to chase him down ... stubby legs are no match for a Fast hero. Diving around corners, doding arcs of flame. My goody-goody character calling out for people to drop their weapons. And, in the end, pulling the unconcious Azer out of a burning building for patching up and questioning.

I love the realistic reactions: When the Hoffmann Institute tells them to investigate and Do Not Engage ... they pull out before they get seen. When the mission calls for investigation and doesn't have any orders on engagements, they'd often rather have a fighting retreat than try to engage and destroy. And then, sometimes, there are things that just have to be stopped ...

I've even had problems getting them to go into combat. I remember one mission where I told them to figure out what was going on with a missing individual and some research in a far-rural area. They got there, went to a neighbor's house, were attacked by something, got in the van, and said they were leaving.

"But you haven't gotten to the core of it."
"There was a PLANT animating that guy ... it was in his SKULL. There were more germinating in there. We investigated it. Call White Division. Greenhouse Zombies."

I had a guy who could cast CoC spells pretty much at will, who never did because bleeding from the eyes to accomplish what a handgun could do better didn't appeal to him. Way to go player. (I know people in D&D who would probably drop themselves to 1 Str if it meant casting Fireball once a round for no other reason than to be "doing damage too".) Something about a Modern character that people can feel for more. D&D players figure their characters walk around town with a sword drawn and plate mail on. Modern players know they're not going to walk around strapped with machine guns and Forced Entry Units. They know they probably can't even get away with Undercover Shirts unless they're expecting to go into a violent situation ... and the guns? The guns are in a lock box in the van.

--fje

--fje

 

[Breakdaddy]

It gets me all hot when you talk like that.

We take our military-style games pretty seriously

 

[Breakdaddy]

I followed you up to about there, and then you lost me completely

Definitely not a problem! We are mostly ex military guys who understand the jargon. It's easy to get lost if you havent put in the time in service. If you have any questions, I would be happy to explain the jargon!

 

[The Shaman]

I'm currently running two Modern games.

The first is our tabletop game, Netherworld, a modern fantasy campaign. The basic premise is that an ancient order of necromancers is searching for immortality and the adventurers accidentally interfere with one of their experiments in progress. The adventurers spent the first part of the campaign searching for a missing girl, the necromancers' "test subject," and now they're trying to cure the girl of the necromancers' treatment - of course, the necromancers are trying to kidnap her once again so they can complete their latest terrible experiment. Then there's the top-secret "super-soldier" program that wants to learn more about the necromancers at the same time the necromancers are trying to steal the bio-engineers' secrets - the adventurers are just discovering that they now have two enemies rather than one.

So far this game has involved short, brief, intense firefights, sometimes with strange undead creatures (my favorite is a homebrew monster called a vermin husk, an undead human that bursts open if struck by piercing or slashing weapons and disgorges monstrous jumping spiders - this encounter took place in a museum and made a real mess of the place), sometimes with the minions of the necromancers - one of the necromancers' lackeys attempted to kill the adventurers with his car, feigning "road rage." The adventurers are not paramilitary-types: one is a private detective (Tough 3/Bodyguard 2), one is a chemist (Smart 4/Field Scientist 1), and one is a professional photographer (Dedicated 3/Charismatic 2) - they all carry pistols of one kind or another and know enough to use whatever cover is available (something I drilled into them when we started), but they're not going to make even a passing fair imitation of a SWAT team.

The second is our play-by-post game, Wing and Sword, which is a modern military campaign set in Algeria in 1956. The characters are all Foreign Legion paratroopers assigned to counter-insurgency operations. The first adventure is in progress here on the boards at ENWorld - click on the "FREE TOUR!" link in my signature and follow the link to Chat et Souris, our adventure in progress.

This adventure is a training drop that goes awry when the paras find themselves playing cat-and-mouse with a company of guerillas in the Saharan Atlas - they had a brief fight when they landed, then they later ambushed a squad of fellaghas (insurgents) and beat back a counter-attack. Now the legionnaires are retreating to a more defensible position as the enemy regroups, hoping the air cover they were promised arrives before the paras are overwhelmed by their numerically superior foe.

In this game I'm using something I call "tactical advantage" - there are certain junctures where one side or the other can gain tactical advantage. In this adventure the paras gained the advantage by discovering the guerillas on their DZ - this means the legionnaires knew about the insurgents but the insurgents didn't know about the legionnaires, giving the insurgents a -2 to all initiative rolls for the remainder of the encounter. This is a strategic benefit that will be built into each engagement, and may have different benefits depending on the specifics of the encounter.

In more practical terms the paras actually lost some of this advantage when one of their comrades was seriously wounded and taken out of action (HP below zero) - in the tradition of the Legion, no one is left behind and now they must retreat while carrying an unconscious member of their section, which has reduced their firepower and speed. So far they've put the hurt on the guerillas, forcing them back with an effective crossfire (I'm using Cool checks to handle morale for the attacking insurgents), but the bulk of the enemy is now about to bring its strength to bear on the outnumbered and isolated legionnaires...

 

[reanjr]

Can I request some d20 Modern anecdotes? Been in any good firefights? Do characters stand across the room from each other and trade shots, or does the game reward (encourage) moving, taking cover, getting the drop, etc.?

What interesting non-combat situations have you experienced in Modern?

Quasqueton

Combat seems to be absolutely dominated by granades and melee. Real good firefights were pretty rare.

The entire campaign was interesting EXCEPT for the combat.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

I ran this same scene a few weeks ago, but quite a bit differently... I like your version better though